MEDINAH, Ill. — Tiger Woods could potentially have some tough decisions to make when it comes to deciding who will fill out his U.S. Presidents Cup team that will play against an International squad later this year.
One of them involves himself.
Another involves U.S. Open champion Gary Woodland.
Neither player qualified for one of the eight automatic spots on the United States team that was determined at the end of the BMW Championship.
Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele, Matt Kuchar, Patrick Cantlay, Webb Simpson and Bryson DeChambeau were the eight automatic qualifiers.
Woods won the Masters and Woodland the U.S. Open; the last time a player won a major championship and was not part of a U.S. team was in 2011, when Keegan Bradley won the PGA Championship but was not picked by captain Fred Couples.
“It’s exciting to be the captain of the Presidents Cup team and these guys have been texting me all week and we’ve had some great exchanges,” Woods said. “I’m excited to have the team locked in. This is going to be our core of the team and can’t reach out to all of them.”
Woods will get four choices in early November, and he’ll have a tough decision picking four among Woodland, Patrick Reed, Tony Finau, Rickie Fowler and potentially himself. Jordan Spieth, whose been on every U.S. team since 2013, is well outside the points list and Phil Mickelson — who been part of every U.S. team dating to his first Ryder Cup in 1995 – has had a poor run of tournaments in recent months.
The International team also had its eight automatic qualifiers decided: Marc Leishman, Louis Oosthuizen, Adam Scott, Hideki Matsuyama, Abraham Ancer, Haotong Li, CT Pan and Cameron Smith.
The biggest name not to qualify was Australian Jason Day. Captain Ernie Els will also decide among the likes of Sungjae Im, who qualified for the Tour Championship, Si Woo Kim and Canadians Corey Conners and Adam Hadwin. Thailand’s Jazz Janewattananond finished ninth in the points race and will also be among the contenders.
The Presidents Cup is Dec. 11-15 at Royal Melbourne in Australia, site of the only International victory in the competition that dates to 1994.